536 HIS roK V of com a sse t. 



office boxes, eighteen, used by Zenas Stoddard at about 

 1840, has for its successor at present a case of five hun- 

 dred boxes. Letters in those days, before 1845, cost five 

 cents each, and no adhesive stamp was used until after 

 1847. Ill fact, no envelope was used, but the letter was so 

 folded and sealed as to be its own envelope. 



In the days when postal cards first were in vogue 

 (1873) the reading them by curious keepers of the office 

 must have been irresistible, and even the letters when they 

 were so few must have been targets for Yankee guessers 

 who could peek at the addresses. 



As late as twenty years ago the letters were kept in an 

 ingenious device which tempted many loungers to examine 

 private correspondence. This device was a long cylinder, 

 or rather a prism with ten or twelve sides, resting upon 

 one end on a store counter. The letters were slipped into 

 little racks upon the flat sides of the prism with the ad- 

 dresses turned out plainly to view. The case could be 

 wheeled around by the lower edge which was exposed so 

 that any one who came might turn it, and looking at all of 

 the letters, he might at last find his own. A board was 

 placed in front of this case so that no one could take a 

 letter ; but a long pane of glass allowed the eye to see all 

 the letters as they came successively to the pane of glass. 



What an interesting toy for idlers ! And what gossip 

 could be expected to suppress a shrewd guess about a 

 suspicious handwriting in a letter addressed to a neighbor .-• 

 Many were guilty of looking for letters when there was not 

 the least hope of a letter ; for the letters of some neigh- 

 bors were more than interesting, just to look at. Com- 

 plaints were made not only in Cohasset, but in other towns 

 where the same apparatus was in vogue, and the old 

 " wheel " was abolished by order of the government. 



The office now has reached the dignity of the Third 

 Class, issuing money orders, and has a building con- 

 structed for its own use. The stamps that are sold each 



